DARJEELING: With the intervention of the Labour department on the direction of minister Becharam Manna, a tripartite meeting resolved the lockdown issue of Windamere Hotel of Darjeeling. The heritage hotel rolled back the lockdown notice and resumed operations from Friday.
Earlier, Windamere — the most famous heritage hotel of Darjeeling — declared a lockout from July 5 owing to the "financial crisis" triggered by the pandemic. With travel restrictions owing to the pandemic and foreign tourists staying away, the hotel had suffered huge losses.
With this decision, the employees had threatened to launch a hunger strike. However, talks were on at the Assistant Labour Commissioner's office in Darjeeling to resolve the issue.
A meeting was held on Thursday at the Shramik Bhawan, Dagapur complex, Siliguri between representatives of the operating trade union; management led by Elizabeth Clerk, MD of Windamere Hotel Pvt Ltd. and officials of the Labour department.
"It was decided in the meeting that the MD would withdraw the lockout notice with immediate effect and the hotel would resume operations from July 2," stated Asish Subba, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Darjeeling. The meeting chaired by Mohammad Rizwan, Additional Labour Commissioner, North Bengal Zone, resolved that the Management would pay the salary of the workers subject to minimum slab of Rs 5,000 and pay 50 per cent of their total salary from June 2021 till the time safety restrictions of the Bengal government are in place.
Salaries will be increased eventually to 60 per cent. After the lifting of the Covid restrictions by the Centre, salaries will be regularised to 100 per cent and workers will have to follow 100 per cent attendance. Another round of talks will be held on August 6 to discuss other agendas. "We are satisfied with the outcome," stated Harish Baharati, an employee.